Without Hesitation, Talia Jager [warren buffett book recommendations txt] 📗

>One of the bugs landed on my arm. It made a buzzing sound and then flew up an inch and rammed into me with its stinger. I whacked it, knocking it out of the air, but before its dead body even hit the ground, another one was on my neck and then one landed on my hand.

“We have to take cover.” In the time it took Ever to look around, I had been stung two more times. Her eyes stopped on the lake. “We have to go under. Do you understand?” Her eyes searched mine as she waited for an answer. Another bug landed on her and stung her. She grimaced and flicked it off. “Akacia! They’re coming! We have to go under!”

I started shaking my head. My eyes traveled from the water to the cloud of bugs still heading our way. We had been stung handfuls of times, but that would be nothing compared to if we were here when the rest of the bugs arrived. But what she was suggesting…going under the water…I shuddered.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” Ever yanked on my hand dragging me to the water.

More bugs stung us as Ever pulled me deeper into the water. “We have to go under and stay there for a minute. I will hold onto you. You’ll be safe.”

She didn’t wait any longer. She quickly spun me around so my back was to her chest, wrapped her arms around me, and she went under the water taking me with her.

Caspar’s face filled my mind. Lorcan dragged me to the basin of water, grabbed me by the neck, and held me under. My lungs burned and I began to kick and thrash. Ever’s hold on me slipped and I swam toward the surface. She grabbed my hands and pulled me close to her. Her eyes were wild and she shook her head. She pulled me to her and held me.

I was going to die.

Underwater.

Drowning on some crazy planet with the girl I wanted to spend forever with.

The girl who had betrayed me.

What kind of craziness was this? Maybe I was stuck in a coma somewhere and this was a dream.

Finally after what seemed like forever, she pushed us to the surface. I gasped for air, she hardly seemed out of breath. She scanned the area looking for the bugs. “They’re gone. Are you okay?”

I didn’t answer. I was still trying to catch my breath.

“Look in my eyes.”

By now I knew what to do. I placed my hand on her chest and matched her breath for breath.

“Good,” she said when my breathing finally evened. With my hand in hers, she led me out of the water. We sank onto the grass and I examined the places on my arms that burned. Welts had formed where the bugs had stung us.

“Come on. We’ll find a place to camp and dry off.”

Ever helped me to my feet and we walked a little farther until we found a good place to spend the night.

After the fire was made she disappeared into the woods to find dinner and I laid out our clothes so they could dry. I sat on a rock with the blanket over me, staring out at the lake, wondering how I was ever going to be okay again.

She came back with another of those small animals she’d caught before and more berries. As she cooked the food, I slipped away to the forest and found some herbs to make a paste for our stings.

After eating, I applied the paste to the welts all over my body. It soothed the pain. Then I gestured for Everleigh to sit down and I did the same for her.

“Sorry I froze.”

“I understand,” she replied.

We rested for the night and got started walking again at first light. I was a little edgy from the stings and being underwater again, so when the dark clouds began rolling in that afternoon, I panicked.

“It’s just a storm,” Ever said.

Without warning lightning struck way too close and I let out a yip. We picked up the pace. Another lightning strike hit the ground behind us. Pea-sized hail started pelting down, stinging our already raw skin.

“Look.” It was the little animal from the other morning. He had followed us and was now running toward some large boulders. “Follow him.”

Lightning hit so close the hairs on my arms stood up. We skidded to the boulder and hid in between two of them.

Something tickled me and I squealed. The little animal popped up on my shoulder. Everleigh shot me a look. “I guess he likes us?”

She put out the bowl to catch run off and we drank every time it filled up.

The lightning storm didn’t last too much longer. We climbed out of our hiding spot and continued on.

For two more nights, we walked through the trees with our little friend following us. We gathered nuts and berries and Ever usually got lucky enough to catch something. We found a small stream for water on the second day and though it wasn’t deep enough to bathe in, we both washed up.

Staring at the fire one night, the little animal came over and curled up in between my feet. I reached down and scratched his head. “I’m going to call you Nero.”

Ever was at the stream collecting water while I played with Nero on one of our breaks when the air was suddenly pierced by her screams.

“Akacia!” she screamed my name and ran faster than humanly possible toward me. I heard a noise behind me just as Nero jumped onto my leg and held on. I spun around to find two large, gray beasts coming right at me.

My eyes grew wide and I searched for my spear. Both hers and mine were too far away for me to get to in time. I reached for my knife as one grabbed at me. I kept the furless, human-like creature with black, feral eyes at arm’s length. It was strong, but so was I. The second one was only inches away. I could deal with one, not two. Ever fired repeatedly at one until he jerked back and fell to the ground. I plunged my dagger into the one in front of me. Its mouth opened and it shrieked in pain. I had never seen so many teeth inside something that looked close to human.

It seemed more irritated by being stabbed than it was hurt and it started coming after me again. He knocked me over and ripped into Ever’s leg. Screaming I threw myself on him shoving the knife in over and over until he finally fell to the ground.

Out of breath, I flopped onto the ground and closed my eyes. “Ever? You okay?” She didn’t answer. “Shit.” I crawled over to her. “Everleigh!”

She turned her head and looked my way. “I’m alive.”

“What’s wrong?”

“My leg.”

I looked where she gestured. The beast had left a ragged set of teeth marks in her leg.

“That good, huh?”

My eyes met hers. “You’ll be fine.”

“You don’t know that.”

“It’s just a bite.”

“What if it makes me turn into one of them?”

“You mean like a vampire or zombie?”

“Yeah.” She was being completely serious.

“That stuff’s not real. Those are just things people used to write books about.”

“Stories had to come from somewhere.”

“Ever. You’re not going to turn into one of these things.”

I took the one blanket we had been carrying with us, dipped it into stream, and then carefully cleaned her wound. It wasn’t bleeding much, so I didn’t need to cauterize it. I wrapped the cloth tightly around it. “I need to find some herbs.” I looked in her eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Wishing I could heal like you.”

My eyebrows arched. “Do you think I could give you some of my blood?”

“No,” she said quickly. Too quickly. Maybe she really did think I was a freak. “No. Just find the herbs.”

I hurried into the woods. My schooling had taught me a lot about plants, herbs, and healing, not only for Valinor but for other planets as well. I could only hope that it would apply on this planet. A little chitter caught my attention. Nero had followed me. He was scampering around to different plants like he knew what I was looking for. He stopped at one plant and chittered a little bit louder.

“Yeah, that looks like one. Good job,” I said then gave him a good rub behind the ears. I found two more I thought would be helpful and ran back to Ever. She had maneuvered herself up against a tree. Using the bowl, I ground up the herbs and mixed with water to make a paste. After unraveling the cloth, I scooped up the paste and smeared it all over the bite. She winced. “Sorry.” I wrapped it back up and then took the last herb. “Eat it,” I ordered. “You’re not going to be able to walk on that leg.”

“I can do it.”

“Stop being ridiculous.”

She let out a sigh. “Okay, I’ll rest overnight and we can try in the morning.”

I nodded, knowing that there was no way she was going to be able to trek on with this injury. “Let’s move away from the beasts a little and we’ll rest there.”

We moved down the stream some so we didn’t have to look at the bodies. Then I gathered the necessary things to build a fire and within minutes had a flame going.

“Hmm,” Ever hummed, as if she were surprised.

“I might be the Empress, but they teach me all the skills too.”

She cracked a smile. “Good.”

“You have a beautiful smile.”

Her cheeks tinted a lovely shade of pink.

Instead of waiting until one of us had a nightmare, I gestured to the ground. Her eyes widened with surprise. She laid down first and I spooned her. Having her so close felt as right as it always did. I pressed my lips to the spot behind her ear and made my way down the side of her neck as I pulled her in a bit closer.

“I’m a Splicer,” she said, letting out a long, shuddering breath.

My hand froze. “A what?”

“Your father wasn’t just dabbling in nanites. He was making cutting edge breakthroughs in many different areas. Your father created the Splicers.”

This was the second time I’d heard that word. “I’m not sure what you mean. Like a species?”

She scoffed. “Hardly. There aren’t a lot of us.”

Suddenly images flashed in my mind from when I was on Caspar’s spacecraft. This is what he wanted. Information about Splicers. “Caspar…he questioned me about this.”

“Did he tell you what Splicers are?”

The memory was hazy. “He said my father took predator animal DNA and did something with it.”

“They wanted to create better warriors. So they asked for volunteers to have their DNA spliced with that of a predator animal. It was their job to have children, called Second Generation Splicers. These kids were supposed to be protected and trained until they were old enough to be warriors and guards. Instead, the children were kidnapped.”

Something in me clicked. “SGS. Second Generation Splicers. I remember when my parents were killed, people kept talking about SGS. I didn’t know what it meant then and nobody has brought it up since.” I grew quiet for another minute. “Caspar wanted to know about my father’s research.”

“Caspar is the one who stole us from our families. He keeps our families on a planet somewhere and as long as we’re working for him, they stay alive and taken care of. He has been trying to replicate